Members of William Mary's Class of 2026 celebrate in Williamsburg, Va. on May 15.Alfred Herczeg/The Associated Press
The kids are not all right … with AI. Sure, they’ve likely used it for an assignment or two, asked it to summarize a particularly dense textbook chapter with bullet points, or consulted it for dating or medical advice. Having an existential crisis? ChatGPT’s got your back.
But at college graduation, the leaders of tomorrow do not want to hear one word about how exciting the artificially intelligent future is going to be. Certainly not from their financially secure, hotshot commencement speakers.
This spring, a number of grad ceremony speakers who have praised the benefits of AI – or even raised the subject – have received choruses of boos.
It happened last week at the University of Arizona, when former Google CEO Eric Schmidt told some 9,000 grads that AI “will touch every profession, every classroom, every hospital, every laboratory, every person and every relationship you have.” He paused for the jeering.
It happened at the University of Central Florida, when real-estate executive Gloria Caulfield told grads, “the rise of artificial intelligence is the next industrial revolution.” She seemed surprised by the booing, turning briefly away from the audience. “What happened? Okay, I struck a chord.”
At Middle Tennessee State University, Big Machine Records CEO Scott Borchetta told grads, “AI is rewriting production as we sit here.” Boos for the man credited with discovering Taylor Swift. (And who later sold his record company, including her masters, to Scooter Braun, to Ms. Swift’s great displeasure.) “I know it, deal with it,” he told the booing grads. “Like I said, it’s a tool.”
Back in Arizona, at Glendale Community College, AI was employed to read the names of the grads as they walked across the stage to receive their diplomas. But the system malfunctioned and in some cases, the wrong names were read out; sometimes no names were announced at all. President Tiffany Hernandez explained to the grads and their proud families that the college had been using an AI system as their reader. “So that is a lesson learned for us,” she said, to loud boos.
Justified! Although I would argue that it is rude – dare I say classless – to boo your human commencement speaker. Particularly when they are just speaking the truth.
Still, it’s understandable. The Class of 2026 is feeling powerless in the face of a topsy-turvy world where good people are losing jobs – and job opportunities – to AI, not to mention their autonomy, privacy and who knows what else. The grads understand that while they were busy hitting the books, AI – much less of a presence when they started university – has drastically altered the world. A reminder of this is unwelcome on the one day they should be thrumming with pride and optimism – even as they graduate into uncertainty.
Statistics Canada analysis shows that three in five Canadian workers are in occupations with high potential for exposure to AI. In the second quarter of 2025, about 12 per cent of businesses reported having used AI to produce goods or deliver services over the previous year. That’s up from 3 per cent in 2022.
Separately, a recent Research Co. survey found that half of Canadians perceive AI as a threat to humanity.
And a U.S. poll found that AI has led 42 per cent of undergraduate students to reconsider their field of study. The Lumina Foundation-Gallup 2026 State of Higher Education Study found 16 per cent changed their major because of AI.
English literature grads no doubt have been watching the latest AI controversies closely, including a prize-winning short story published in the revered literary magazine Granta that was likely written entirely by AI.
The new book The Future of Truth: How AI Reshapes Reality includes erroneous quotes made up by AI. Author Steven Rosenbaum discloses in the book’s acknowledgments that he used AI tools, but told the New York Times “that does not excuse the errors.”
In an ideal world, AI should be doing the grunt work – certainly not writing your book (or essays) for you. But like it or not, artificial intelligence is part of the landscape, including the employment landscape. As Mr. Schmidt told the booing Arizona grads, “whatever path you choose, AI will become part of how work is done.”
It’s not just the tech sector that’s being radically transformed; it’s medicine, business administration, retail and manufacturing. From cancer research to employee scheduling, even Bible study, AI is going to play a role. All the boos in the world won’t change this. That said, any commencement speakers planning to wax poetic about AI this spring or fall might consider taking a red pen to those speeches. And in making those edits, they would be wise to swap out the chatbots in favour of using their own, real intelligence.